#Lady of Pain

[theology101]

Something that always pissed me off with Helio is that there is literally an answer

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

“Well you see its because there’s this thing called the Abyss that pours out chaos and evil into the world and the only force holding them back is a Trans-Dimensional Devil who rules the Nine Hells with an iron fist and is always trying to subvert and seduce people into evil. As powerful as Gods are, we’re not All Powerful so we have to act through our mortal agents and, sometimes, lose. We just try to be kind and help others.”

“Oh damn okay. Does it matter if im gay though?”

“Nah not really. Like, the list of things that send you to hell is very small and pretty definite so just try to be a good person and you’ll end up here. Anyways, later!”

[dee-the-red-witch]

The Mistress of Sigil.

Her Holy Severity.

Ruler of Silence.

The Lady of Pain.

Thought I'd go back to one of my fave rpg titles for the latest bit of flashwork and dig up some Planescape: Torment for everyone to enjoy.

[flabbergastedpigeon]

new planescape art just came out and i almost cried

[ettawritesnstudies]

Annabelle Keay

An npc from my Planescape dnd campaign, magnificent bitch, and problem causer extrodinarrie. She's heavily inspired by Gertrude Robinson from the Magnus archives and she's got a sword from the Lady of Pain's Crown of Blades.

[lord-soth-dk]

Well you know that I'd give you my heart

Even if it's torn apart

'Cause I've come too far to be scared

And I don't regret what we shared

But you know that I love you, for God

And I love you much more than I should

And I can't help but cry when you're so far away

But I smile 'cause I hope that

You'll be back one day

If I died in your arms

Would you then give me your love?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

Now there's nothing I can say to you

To make you feel the same way too

When you walk away I just want to die

And I try not to break down and cry

But you know that I love you this way

Enough to let go and let you walk away

Now maybe you come back

And maybe you won't

But when you're not with me

I feel so alone

If I died in your arms

Would you then give me your love?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

If I died in your arms

Would you then give me your love?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

Now there's one thing I need you to know

'Cause you think that you just know me so

That I'll be there if you asked me to

Oh no, if you only knew

That I love you so much that it hurts

But my broken heart feels so much worse

You do what you want 'cause I gave you my best

And you know something

If you ask me

I would say yes

If I died in your arms

Would you then give me your love?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

If I died in your arms

Would you then give me your love?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

Would you tell me that you need me

And that I was the one?

-"If I Died In Your Arms" by Devil Doll

[stickyhunter]

The cover, full page pieces, and additional spot art I did for Faces of the Cage -- minus the busts in the background of the cover which are by Kayla Cline

[brassrobo]

"The life and the love thou despisest, These hurt us indeed, and in vain, O wise among women, and wisest, Our Lady of Pain." -Algernon Charles Swinburne Well that took forever. I've wanted to paint the Lady of Pain for a while now, but it took a while to find a good model. Unfortunately the one I found was absolutely massive. Which combined with all the blades meant they kept breaking. As if the Lady herself was displeased at being represented. This one actually got damaged after I'd already painted it. But I don't think it's that noticeable. Went with oil paints for this one. Zorn palette with an additional red for more variety. Overall I'm really happy with it. Just need to find a good place to put her.

[tamvmat]

The Lady Of Pain - Planescape

Ink drawing

[dndtreasury]

Talisman of the Lady of Pain by Timmi's Treasure Vault

[kassil]

Planescape and the Great Wheel

I've seen some people (understandably) complaining about the Great Wheel cosmology of D&D, and how the default design of things implies a wackified version of christian theology, with Heavens that are Nice Places and Hells that are Nasty Places and some weird stuff sprinkled in elsewhere. It's extremely unpleasant in a lot of ways (and I won't defend the setting at all when it comes to Orientalism - Planescape was arguably worse about it than other settings, since they happily tried shoehorning any pantheon they could find into the planes somewhere.)

(If you want to complain about there being planes of evil and planes of good, take it up with the people who insist that alignment is a thing that has to be in the system. As it stands, it is baked into the rules and changing that requires a lot of homebrew work, but that's a topic for a different day.)

But while Planescape as a setting was what popularized the Great Wheel cosmology the most, I want to be clear that while newer editions paint it as some inherent cosmological megastructure, in Planescape the fundamental concept is that the only cosmological truths are the rule of threes, the unity of rings, and the center of all. That Great Wheel is just a ring imposed by the current Powers of the multiverse, organized in patterns of three, with the Spire and Sigil as an artificial centerpoint. Asking what lies beyond it, what came before it, and what's really inside it are all absolutely valid questions that the setting itself wants you to ask and answer.

There's nothing writ about it officially, but there are plenty of hints and winks - that the fiends of the hells aren't the first to live there, and might be as wardens of the prior occupants or vermin infesting an abandoned home, depending on where and when and how you look. The same goes for the celestials, and the exaggerated alignment aspects of their home planes, combined with the many, many problems both implied and plainly depicted in the material make it pretty clear that the planes are both a battleground and a construction. Planes lose fragments of themselves to other planes all the time; the more-lawful-than-good Arcadia lost an entire layer to the entirely-lawful Mechanus, and while the people who caused it would very much like to get it back, it's clear that none of the planes are immutable - just mostly under divine control.

And then there's the fact that magic - including divine magic and the very powers and essence of the gods - fades as you get closer to the immense spire at the heart of the Great Wheel. Get a god close enough and they're no tougher than a barbarian with an axe. It strongly implies that things aren't what they seem at first glance, even if it's treated as a natural law; to say nothing of Sigil and the Lady of Pain, who can forbid gods from the city and apparently killed one who tried to claim portals as his domain. The City of Doors, which has portals that defy all the understood laws of planar travel, linking everywhere with everywhere without a need to pass through the transitive planes.

Planescape outlines a massive, complex, and self-contradictory Great Wheel cosmology, one that was plainly meant to make you ask "So what if I use Plane Shift to try to teleport to the far side of Mount Celestia?" Because what's past the embodiment plane of Lawful Good? It's either conceptually rarefied to the point that you'll never come back after dissolving into it... Or it's whatever the current Powers really don't want you seeing and learning about. An Astral Sea, a plane of Dreams, a plane of Time, entire other cosmological systems built around other designs, the homes of things older than existence, or any number of other things. All tidily hidden behind "oh yeah that doesn't exist/it's the Far Realm where reality just sort of dissolves we don't try going there/nothing to worry your pretty mortal head about, leave those questions to the gods."

(Which any Athar worth their membership will absolutely begin poking at immediately, while the Bleaker will tell you that it doesn't matter what the gods say, if you help them get the soup finished for the public kitchen they'll introduce you to a guy in the Gatehouse who says she's seen some things, and the other factions all do their own thing and pay the gods and their agents no mind.)

This is all just a long way of saying "The Great Wheel is there as a narrative tool, and breaking the Wheel and finding out what it was built to hide is a narrative that can be told."

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

My old Planescape fan-art. The Lady of Pain and the factol of the Sensates.

[matovilka]

The Lady of Pain

The Lady of Pain from Blood Wars CCG.

Blood Wars is an out-of-print collectible card game produced by TSR, based on the Planescape campaign setting from Dungeons & Dragons.

[whiskey-and-regrets]

Lady of the knight

[zoe-oneesama]

She got the Miracle Queen Upgrade~

Episode 51 Part 9 First < Previous > Next Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5 Ep 41, Ep 42, Ep 43, Ep 44 Ep 45, Ep 46, Ep 47, Ep 48, Intermission, Ep 49, Ep 50

Bonus:

Ko-fi | Patreon

[kathaynesart]

And now watch it all fall apart.

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Thank you everyone for your patience as I recuperate from Covid. I tested negative and am now just recuperating from the lasting effects. Honestly, this update is one I probably could have skipped, but I love me a good heist plan. Plus I just wanted to have some fun with this holiday special and if that means extending it a bit longer, then so be it.

[bluerosefox]

Over Tea

A sudden chill sweeps through Gotham, almost like Mr. Freeze had just attacked only thing was the man was currently locked away in Arkham, and was felt by all. And talked by all via word of mouth and on social media as well.

The clouds and smog that covered their dark city shifted and swirled, a rumble beginning deep inside them as the weather turned from smoggy to rain and thunder with no real warning. The strangest thing was the green glow that could be seen when thunder rumbled inside the gray clouds.

Then like a candle being blown out, the rumbling stopped, the rain ended, and the clouds parted all over Gotham.

For the first time in a while Gotham had a clear sky and it felt... it felt like something heavy had been lifted off the city.

It was this sudden shift and the all felt chill that had set off alerts for Batman and his family. Since early morning since the first change and shift happened he was in front of the Batcomputer trying to narrow down where it started.

After hours of searching with the help of Red Robin, Oracle and strangely enough Red Hood, they managed to narrow down where the odd power had been coming from.

Was still coming from, only very low.

The old and abandoned observatory tower.

-x-x-

"More ecto-tea Lady Gotham?" Danny asked, his hand waving towards the steaming pot nearby.

The woman smiled lightly, her dark painted lips curling up to show her sharp fangs for a moment before saying "No but thank you Young Kingling though I would like more cookies if you don't mind. Now where were we?"

Danny nodded towards her and signaled towards a maid skeleton ghost who walked forward with a tray of cookies. The maid swiftly placed a few more cookies on the spirit embodiment of Gotham plate before bowing and stepping away.

"We were just about to discuss the sentience of the Court of Owls." Danny said as he lightly tapped the large almost mountain of paperwork on the table they were sitting at, floating high above the floor as shooting stars and planets drifted around them. Many ghosts floated around as well, servants that had sworn their loyalty to the Young King, and were preparing things like snacks and drinks for two powerful beings in the room as they discussed business. Nearby doors and windows though were ghostly knights that stood tall and alert, making sure no interlopers interrupted the meeting taking place and ready to defend not only Lady Gotham but their King.

"Ah yes them." Lady Gotham grimaced as she took a drink of her ecto-tea. "That will take some time for us to discuss, they've been running around unchecked for to long and even with my limited abilities to hinder them has been less than ideal."

"You, Lady G, were deeply cursed for many, many years and I just broke most of it." Danny cut in quickly, he was not about to let this wonderful and powerful city spirit blame herself for something out of her hands "Due to said curse you couldn't do much so please don't go blaming yourself. Its mostly broken now, so you can freely start healing yourself and your city self now that jerk demon that cursed you is in Walker's prison for his crimes."

Lady Gotham grew silent for a moment, her dark eyes staring deeply at the young King but then warmly smiled, well as warm as she could seeing how she was Gotham itself. "You reminded me of my Knight, Young King, treating me like this. Not afraid to point out the truth and facts."

Danny gave a light laugh as he took a hold of one of the cookies on his plate and gave a bite "I'll take that as a compliment Lady Gotham. Now about those Court of Owls...."